Saturday, September 19, 1998 Last modified at 2:46 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 1998

An American Patriot

A CHARITABLE DEED or two sometimes can buy honor or acclaim for an individual. In the case of Zachary Fisher, all the honor or acclaim that he now reaps hardly matches what we know about the size and significance of his acts of charity.

Some have described the quiet Westchester, New Yorker as the armed forces' "best friend," a label that is underscored by a recitation of his good works over the years. Thousands have benefited from his benevolence.

It seems to have begun with the disappointment Mr. Fisher felt in World War II when a bum knee that had been injured in construction work kept him from becoming a Marine.

"I could have cried," he says, recalling the day in 1942 when he was told that he had flunked the Marine physical. "I wanted to go defend my country."

One result of that disappointment, however, was a decision by Mr. Fisher, now 86, to turn wealth earned as a developer into help and recognition for others.

In 1983, when he learned that 241 service personnel had been killed in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, he sent each of the victims' children - all 113 of them - a check for $10,000 for their college education.

`Our military are forgotten during peace ...'

Six years later, when a gun turret explosion killed 47 sailors aboard the battleship Iowa, he sent $25,000 to each family that lost a son or husband in the disaster.

Since then, Mr. Fisher has sent more than 600 checks of $10,000-plus each to the families of other military casualties.

"I always felt that I owed something to the men and women who defended my freedom and allowed me to become so successful in such a great country," he said in an interview last week. "Our military are forgotten during peace time. We need to be just as patriotic during peace as in war."

Mr. Fisher shunned publicity most of his life - until publicity was thrust upon him last week. President Clinton awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest award for a civilian.

"It is a privilege to live in this country of ours," Mr. Fisher said. "They don't owe me a thing. I owe them."

That attitude stands out as a rarity in these times, when most people focus mainly on the "me" aspect of their lives.

James Kallstrom, former head of the FBI in New York, says Mr. Fisher and his wife Elizabeth supported the U.S. military "in hundreds of ways that could not have been funded through official channels.

"He's truly America's best friend," Mr. Kallstrom said - and what we know of the man's deeds reinforce the tribute.